Coin controlled dispenser



com CONTROLLED DISPENSER Filed May 11, 1940 e Sheets-Sheet 1 J @n j; [7gig- 2 ventor XAZPH k. QU/NT/EELL I I I i693 By A iiorney I R. R.QU-INTRELL. 2,292,658 1 7 com comm 0mm DISPENSER V )1 I Ihventor 5 gmQRALPH 7x. QU/NTRELL,

A iiomey Patented Aug. 11, 1942 v OFFICE. f

COIN CONTROLLED DISPENSER Ralph R. Quintrell, Etowah, Tenn. ApplicationMay 11, 1940, Serial No. 334,595

7 Claims.

My invention relates to improvements in coin controlled manuallyoperated dispenser, and the primary object of my invention is to providea simple, inexpensive and practical arrangement of this character whichis especially adapted to the vending of small articles of merchandise ona, profit-sharing basis. 7 e

Other important objects and advantages of my invention will be apparentfrom a reading of the following description and the appended drawingswherein a preferred embodiment of my invention is shown for illustrativepurposes.

In the drawings: 7

Figure 1 is a side elevational view showing incorporation of theinvention in a small counter size form.

Figure 2 is a front elevational view thereof.

Figure 3 is an enlarged top plan view with the top of the casing removedand with the moving parts in initial inoperative positions.

Figure 4 is a transverse vertical sectional view taken through Figure 3approximately on the line 4-2 of Figure 3-and'looking upwardly in thedirection of the arrows.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary transverse vertical sectional view takenthrough Figure 3 approximately on the line 55 and looking upwardly inthe direction of the arrows.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view taken through Figure5 approximately on the line i2 and looking downwardly on the directionof the arrows.

Referring in detail to the drawings, the numeral 5 generally designatesa' sheet metal casing of vertically'elong'ated rectangular form having asuitable base 6 for resting on a merchandise counter or other suitablesupport (not shown). A removable top 'I rests upon and is hinged at 2 onthe open upper end of the casing and has lockable retention means 9thereon.

Substantially midway between the top and bottom of the casing anglebrackets l2 and II, re-- spectively, are secured to the opposite sidewalls of the casing to support the mechanism base l2 which has anupstanding integral flange M on its front end through which bolts l2traversing the front wall It of the casing and the coin slot frame I'I,pass to secure these parts in stationary vertically supporting relation.The mechafrom the left hand side of the mechanism base and has adeclining portion l9 fastened to the underside of the upper part of aforwardly declining' merchandise chut 22 which is additionally securedat 2| to the adjacent left side wall of the casing to empty into thecup-shaped receiver 22 which is mounted on the casing front wall partlywithin the access opening 22.

The upper end of. the chute 22 is positioned directly under the lowerend of' the vertical tubular conduit 24 which passes upwardly throughone of anumber of openings in the open work mechanism base l2. A sleeve25 may be telescopically secured on the lower end of the conduit 22 toprovide for a jack-pot accumulation of merchandise in the tube 24, suchas small tins of aspirin or the like, above the gate 22 which is pivotedon a horizontal axis and equipped with an adjustable weight 21 topredetermine the number of pieces which must accumulate in the tube 24to effect the dropping of the gate and the delivery of all of theaccumulated articles to the customer via the chute 22 and receiver 22.

. The upper end of the tube 24 extends through the base plate 22 of thevertical merchandise container tube 22 which has its lower end fixed inan opening formed in a top plate 22 at a pointadjacent to the rear ofthe tube 24. The top plate 22 is spaced upwardly from the base plate 22by spacing means 2|, securing means 22 acting to hold the partstogether. The articles or pieces to be dispensed are stacked like coinsin the tube 22 with the lowermost pieces resting on the top of the base22. A horizontally swingable transfer element 22 is journaled on avertical pivot 24 on the base, the transfer element being hook-shaped inplan as shown in Figure 6 of the drawings. The vertical pivot 22traverses the smaller end of the transfer element 22 and is located onthe base plate 22 to the left of the tube 22 with the transfer elementextending around behind the said tube with its wider end positioned tothe right of the said tube. The transfer element 22 is normallyretracted by the spring 25 to a slightly rearwardly angulated positionwith the heel 22' presented at an acute angle for cam arrangement bypins 21 depending from the toothed wheel 22 as the wheel 22 rotates in acounter-clockwise direction. The pins 21 cam the element 22 so as toswing the element 22 on its pivot 22 and cause its curved front edge 22to push the bottom-most one of the articles stacked in the tube 22 outof the tube and along the plate 22 to the upper end'of the tube 24,through which the transferred article then falls. As each pin 21 Y whichspaces it upwardly from the mechanism base l3, the hub 40 beingjournaledon the spindle 4| which rises from the base l3. In aprofitsharing arrangement of the device the pins 31 will becircumferentially spaced on the wheel 38 at such intervals as to causeoperation of the transfer element 33 to dispense an amount ofmerchandise of .a predetermined value in excess of the value of thecoins or tokens used to operate the coin slides to be described. Thecircumferential teeth 42 on the wheel 38 are of a size and spacing suchthat the wheel will be advanced in a counter-clockwise direction apredetermined number of'teeth according to which of the coin slides isoperated.

Pivoted intermediate its ends on the spindle 4| above the toothed wheel38 is the irregularly shaped cam plate 43 which is held down in place bythe head 44 on the upper end of the spindle 4| and a washer 45 undersaid head. One end of the cam plate has a contractile spring 46stretched between it and an anchor 41 on a forward part of the mechanismbase I3. A bellcra'nk pawl 48 is pivoted to the underside of the sameend of the cam plate 43 and has its nose engaging the teeth 42 of thewheel 38 and its remaining end connected with a contractile spring 49which is also connected to a rearwardly positioned anchor 50 on the camplate. A bellcrank dog is pivotally mounted on the base i3 forwardly ofthe cam plate and has one arm engaging the teeth of the wheel 38 and hasits remaining arm connected to one end of a contractile spring 52 whoseopposite end is anchored to a bracket 53. By reason of thesearrangements, rocking of the left hand end of the cam plate 43 in aforward direction, such as is produced by operation of the coin slides,will swing the right hand end of the cam plate rearwardly with the pawl48 in engagement with the teeth on the=- wheel 38, thereby turning thewheel in a counterclockwise direction. At the same time that the wheelturns the dog 5| trips over the teeth 42 but comes to rest between twoof the teeth when the movement ceases, in a manner to positively preventreverse or clockwise rotation of the wheel 38.

ment, three vertically projecting cams 54, 55, and

- 56', resp ctively, spaced along the cam plate from left to right,-an daligned in rear of the related conventional type coin slides 51, 58,'-ard 59, respectively, which are mounted by the frame H on the front wallof the casing.

The slide '60 of the coin slide 51 has a long slightly angulated camface 6| to engage the cam 54. The cam face 62 on the slide 63 of thecoin slide 58 is shorter, rounded, and more acutely angulated, to engagethe cam 55, while the cam face 64 of the slide 65 of'the coin slide 59is squared to engage the cam 56. As is evident from Figure 3 of thedrawings the coin slides are graduated in capacity from left to right toaccept larger coins or tokens and the corresponding coin slides andcoins are arranged to tm'n the wheel 38 a-correspondingly greater numberof teeth, when the coin slides are pushed in with a proper coin or tokenin place therein. It will be observed that the mechanism of the deviceis easily accessible in the casing or may be easily The cam plate 43has, in the present embodiremoved from the casing for repair,adjustment, or replacement.

Although I have shown and described herein a preferred embodiment of myinvention, it is to be understood that I do not wish to limit theapplication to the precise structural details disclosed, except as maybe required by the scope of the subioined claims.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

l. A coin controlled dispensing device of the character described, saiddevice comprising a support, a mechanism base plate mounted on anelevated part of said support, an article dispensing container on saidsupport, dispensing means including transfer means for moving thelowermost article of a stack of the articles from the bottom of saidcontainer, a rotary toothed wheel on said base plate, said wheel havingan abutment to engage and operate said transfer means when sufficientlyturned in one direction, means to prevent rotation of said wheel in theopposite direction, a rocker on said support, a pawl on said rockerengaging the teeth of the wheel, a plurality of cams on said rocker, anda similar plurality of selectively operable slides on said support eachhaving a manually operable element, said slides having portionspositioned to operatively engage the individual cams to which theyrelate, to rock said rocker to effect rotation of said wheel for acorresponding circumferential distance.

2. A device in accordance with claim 1 wherein said dispensing meanscomprises a chamber into which the transferred article falls, adepressible gate closing the lower end of said chamber to causeaccumulation of the transferred articles in said chamber until theweight of the accumulated articles overcomes the resistance of saidgate, and receiving means to receive the articles discharged from saidchamber.

3. A coin controlled article dispensing device, said device comprising asupport, a mechanism base mounted on said support, a vertical articlecontainer on a part of said base with its lower end sufiiicently spacedfrom the top of said base to permit the lowermost article to rest onsaid part of the base and be clear of the lower end of the container, adischarge conduit opening through said part of the base at one side ofsaid container, a transfer element pivoted on a vertical axis on saidpart of the base at one side of said container, said transfer elementbeingswingable to engage and transfer said lowermost article from thelower end of said container into the upper end of said dischargeconduit, and coin controlled means for operating said transfer element.

'4. A, coin controlled article dispensing device according to claim 3wherein said transfer element is pivoted adjacent one end thereof andhas retracting spring means to swing said transfer element toinitialposition after operation.

5. A coin controlled article dispensing device according to claim 3wherein said transfer ele-.

according to claim 3 wherein said transfer element is pivoted adjacentone end thereof and has retracting spring means to swing said transsaidtransfer element being formed with a cam lobe and said coin controlledmeans comprising a mechanism comprising at least one member engageablewith said lobe to operate said transfer element to initial positionafter operation;

fer element; said coin controlled means comprising a plurality ofhorizontal slides on said support and projecting along said mechanismbase, a toothed wheel rotatably mounted on a vertical axis on said base,said member projecting from said toothed wheel, a rocker mounted on avertical axis on said base, a spring pressed operating pawl carried bysaid rocker, in operative engagement with the teeth of said wheel torotate said wheel in one direction only, a plurality of cams on saidrocker corresponding in number and position to the said plurality ofhorizontal slides, said slides and the related cams being formed to rocksaid rocker to operate said wheel different predetermined portions of arevolution of the wheel when one of the slides.

with said vertical opening, said base plate having -aportion on'whichthe lowermost article rests, a dispensing conduit depending from saidelevated portion of the base with its upper end communicating with asecond vertical opening formed in said base plate and in said elevatedportion and spaced from one side of said first vertical opening, aspring retracted transfer element pivoted on a vertical axis on saidelevated portion, said transfer element being arranged to swing frominoperative position and across said first vertical opening below thelower end of said vertical article container to push thelowermostarticle into said second vertical opening to fall into saiddispensing conduit, said transfer elementincluding a cam lobe, a toothedwheel rotatably mounted on a vertical axis on the top of said base, saidwheel having circumferentially spaced legs depending therefrom foroperatively enga in the cam lobe of said transfer element, a

rocker above and pivoted on the same axis as said toothed wheel andextending transversely across said wheel, a spring operated pawl carriedby said rocker in operative engagement with the teeth of said wheel toturn the wheel in one direction only as said rocker is operated, springmeans retracting said rocker to disengage said i pawl from the teeth ofsaid wheel, said rocker having transversely spaced cams projectingupwardly therefrom; said cams corresponding in number and'position withsaid horizontal parts of the slides, said horizontal parts and said camsbeing arranged to engage and produce rocking of said rocker to advancesaid wheel a predetermined amount according to the slide operated.

aALPH a. oummmn,

